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The lactose operon (lac operon) is an operon required for the transport and metabolism of lactose in E. coli and many other enteric bacteria.Although glucose is the preferred carbon source for most enteric bacteria, the lac operon allows for the effective digestion of lactose when glucose is not available through the activity of β-galactosidase. [1]
It is encoded by the lacY gene in the lac operon. The LacY gene is a component of the lac operon that encodes lactose permease, a protein responsible for breaking down lactose into glucose and galactose, alongside transacetylase and beta galactosidase.
Absence of glucose will "turn off" catabolite repression. When glucose levels are low, the phosphorylated form of EIIA accumulates and consequently activates the enzyme adenylyl cyclase, which will produce high levels of cAMP. cAMP binds to catabolite activator protein (CAP) and together they will bind to a promoter sequence on the lac operon ...
Taking advantage of an operon fusion placing the lac operon (responsible for producing beta-galactosidase, a protein which degrades lactose) under the control of an SOS-related protein, a simple colorimetric assay for genotoxicity is possible.
They discovered that the mechanism that controlled the metabolic "switching" function was a two-part control mechanism on the lac operon. When lactose is present in the cell the enzyme β-galactosidase is produced to convert lactose into glucose or galactose. When lactose is absent in the cell the lac repressor inhibits the production of the ...
[1] [2] cAMP-CAP is required for transcription activation of the lac operon. This requirement reflects the greater simplicity with which glucose may be metabolized in comparison to lactose. The cell "prefers" glucose, and, if it is available, the lac operon is not activated, even when lactose is present. This is an effective way of integrating ...
It consists of the monosaccharides D-galactose and D-glucose linked through a β1-6 glycosidic linkage instead of the β1-4 linkage of lactose. It may arise from the occasional transglycosylation of lactose by β-galactosidase. It is an inducer of the lac operon in Escherichia coli and many other enteric bacteria.
In E. coli, the lacZ gene is the structural gene for β-galactosidase; which is present as part of the inducible system lac operon which is activated in the presence of lactose when glucose level is low. β-Galactosidase synthesis stops when glucose levels are sufficient. [2] β-Galactosidase has many homologues based on similar sequences.